Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Jan.,  1879. 
Editorial. 
SI 
since  the  formation  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Association  in  1852,  since 
which  time  also  a  number  of  State  and  more  local  pharmaceutical  societies  date 
their  existence.  Although  attempts  were  made  in  some  of  the  Southern  States 
about  50  years  ago,  and  in  New  York  nearly  40  years  ago,  to  regulate  the  practice 
of  pharmacy  by  legislative  measures,  the  pharmacy  laws  at  present  in  force  in  about 
a  dozen  States  have  all  been  enacted  within  the  last  10  years — since  the  subject  has 
more  prominently  attracted  the  attention  of  the  American  Pharmaceutical  Associ- 
ation. 
The  field  of  which  50  years  ago  the  "  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  "  was  the 
sole  occupant  in  the  United  States  has  been  considerably  extended  since  then,  and  is 
to  some  extent  now  cultivated  by  several  other  journals.  The  pharmacists  who  50 
years  ago  had  no  voice  in  the  revision  of  the  Pharmacopoeia,  now  exert  a  very 
important  influence  in  the  periodical  improvement  of  this  national  pharmaceutical 
law  book.  The  educational  advantages  of  which  50  years  ago  but  few  of  the 
younger  pharmacists  could  avail  themselves,. are  now  shared  by  a  hundredfold  the 
number.  The  pharmaceutical  literature  of  North  America  which  50  years  ago  was 
in  its  infancy,  and  which,  in  fact,  dates  its  birth  with  the  beginning  of  the  "  Amer- 
ican Journal  of  Pharmacy,"  is  at  present  well  known  and  duly  appreciated  through- 
out the  civilized  world. 
In  all  these  changes  the  Journal  has  not  been  merely  a  spectator,  but  has  actively 
participated  in  bringing  them  about,  so  that  its  pages  from  the  beginning  form  a 
faithful  record  of  the  rise  and  progress  of  pharmacy  in  the  United  States  and  abroad. 
Its  aim  will  remain  unchanged  on  entering  the  second  half-century  of  its  existence, 
and  the  editor,  while  he  will  continue  to  use  his  best  endeavors  in  advancing  what 
he  conceives  to  be  the  true  interests  of  our  profession,  urges  upon  the  former  con- 
tributors to  continue,  and  upon  the  younger  graduates  and  other  members  of  the 
profession  to  commence  recording  their  experience  in  the  field  of  pharmacy  and  to 
offer  them  for  the  good  of  all.  The  editor  earnestly  bespeaks  for  the  Journal  a 
continuance  of  the  interest  which  has  been  so  liberally  extended  to  it  before. 
The  Pennsylvania  Patent  Medicine  Tax.— -In  a  report  on  the  meeting  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Pharmaceutical  Association  at  Reading,  published  on  page  360  of  our 
last  volume,  we  stated  that  the  Committee  on  Legislation  was  instructed  to  memori- 
alize the  Legislature  for  the  repeal  of  the  law  imposing  the  tax  mentioned.  It  was 
stated  at  the  time  that  in  some  counties  the  tax  was  not  collected,  and  that  in  fact 
there  was  no  legal  authority  for  collecting  it.  The  matter  in  the  meantime  has  been 
judicially  decided,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  following,  which  we  copy  from  the 
Pittsburg  Commercial  Gazette  of  Nov.  26,  1878  : 
Common  Pleas  No.  2 — Judges  Kirkpatrick  and  Ewing. — In  eleven  cases 
of  appeals  from  aldermen,  where  the  County  Treasurer  sought  to  collect  additional 
mercantile  license  tax  from  druggists  selling  patent  medicines,  the  judgments  against 
defendants  were  reversed,  the  Court  holding  that  the  act  of  1849,  under  which 
the  tax  claimed  was  assessed,  had  been  repealed  by  act  of  1858,  and  even  if  it  had 
not  been,  there  was  no  power  under  the  act  to  collect  the  tax.  The  names  of  the 
defendants  were  J.  B.  Cherry,  Emanuel  &  Maits,  Joseph  Abel,  J.  B.  Hill,  Mans- 
field Foster,  Arnold  Koch,  Charles  Schwann,  J.  T.  McKennan,  A.  F.  Sandhill,  G. 
R.  Splane  and  Theodore  Doerflinger. 
Poisoning  by  Carbolic  Acid.— Early  in  October  last  a  boy,  Helmuth  Hartmann, 
of  Milwaukee,  was  bitten  by  a  dog,  and  Dr.  Grasttinger  being  called  in  soon  after- 
wards saw  the  patient  at  1  o'clock  P.  M.,  and  prescribed  a  solution  consisting  of 
about  nine  parts  of  carbolic  acid  to  one  part  of  glycerin.  The  prescription  con- 
tained no  special  directions,  but  before  the  Coroner  the  doctor  testified  that  he  gave 
verbal  directions  that  a  teaspoonful  should  be  diluted  with  a  pint  of  water,  and  in 
